Payment in Blood (Inspector Lynley Book 2)

I have read every book she has written in the Detective Lynley series. Her books are thick and long but I always hate to get to the last page. Her ability to build on the main characters and their relationships even from one book to another puts her in a unique class of novelists. Her detail to everything from location, culture, interaction between each actor in the script is amazing. I feel very inadequate trying to describe how brilliant her writing and plots are done. Interestingly, she doesn't live in Britain where these books all take place but in the Pacific Northwest of the US.I watch some of the BBC Detective Lynley mysteries but it is impossible to fit in all the people, passion, nuances, etc. in a series. I also feel after reading her that I KNOW Detective Lord Lynley , Barbara, Helen and others that can't be squeezed in so that I wonder why he doesn't have blond hair, she's a little more pulled together...Just read her!

As far as mystery plot is concerned, this isn’t Elizabeth George’s best. If she is part of the Agatha Christie tradition, here she deviates a bit by being less cerebral. The story centers around a theater company and the murder of a playwright, but the real drama lies in the outskirts of this mystery. It goes with aristocratic Inspector Thomas Lynley’s passion for Lady Helen Clyde—a jealousy so obsessive that it will prevent him from doing his job properly. The display of this Achille’s heel destroys Lynley’s own sense of perfection, but adds something better: a vulnerable dimension that makes this member of the nobility part of us after all. It’s with Sergeant Barbara Havers that most readers will identify, however. To Lynley’s elegance and servant assisted life, she responds with the rushed, stressed ways of the working class. She has no time for herself, can hardly take care of her incapacitated parents, is angry most of the time, particularly at social inequality. In other words, she equates aristocrat with aristo-crap. This said, to Lynley’s Don Quixote she’s the crucial Sancho Panza. Balance exists once they are together; not a quiet balance, mind you, but a balance that recreates itself with arguments and struggles. They need each other in order to solve clues. One goes with ideas, intuition and imagination; the other gives structure and brings these ideas back to reality when they travel too far. And that’s why, even when her mystery plots are somewhat circumvoluted like this one, George is engaging. She never shies away from character development, and the personal dramas of her detectives are never too far in the background.

I really enjoyed this second book in the series. It is compelling written, draws you in quickly and keeps your interest throughout the book. There are many twists and turns at the end so that you really don't know who is guilty. Ms George is the master of weaving together a mystery, the personal lives of many of the suspects and the personal lives of the detectives. Each person in the book has been well thought out, fully developed and interesting. I am at a loss though at how Lynley without a word of explanation has jumped from his obsession with Deborah in A Great Deliverance to Helen in this book. I almost feel like I've missed something along the way. I like the way the author lets you see how vulnerable Lynley is about his personal life and how he lets it slip over into his professional life causing him to make mistakes and be stubborn about them. That is where good old Havers comes in handy. Love that woman. I read all of these books many years ago then loaned my copies out and never got them back. I decided to read them again now since I remembered them as being superior till Ms George began to sort of lose it somewhere along about the 8th book maybe. These earlier books stand alone as wonderfully written so I'm going to reread the series till I reach the point where I think "what on earth happened to her ability to tell a story" then stop. If you want to read excellent mysteries you are perfectly safe in ordering the first half dozen in the series as I've done. If you have only read recent books by Ms George then don't give up on her but go back to the beginning of the series and read those. They are excellent. Bless her heart. She is not the only author to go off the rails after turning out several superior books.

This is one of her early books with Inspector Lynley & Barbara Havers. I have read all of the books and have come togrow fond of Barbara. She is the comic relief in all the murders The story is set in Northern Scotland in a snowstorm with a bunch of rich actors and the play they were going to perform has. been canceled. A lady has been murdered. She was knifed in the throat when all the actors & actresses arrive. Lynley and Havers are summoned which normally they would not. When they arrive they have a meeting to determine who was where and who said what & did what. I found it enjoyable.

I didn't remember having read this book until 50 pages in. Can that I am of Elizabeth George and Lynley\Havers\Lady Helen I found I couldn't leave the book even though I remembered the plot at p.50. And it was just as good as I remembered. St James and Deb and her father and Denton are all on board in this stage-centered tale. The actors make it a bit more flamboyant in the cast of characters than some George novels but a substitute featuring a pub owner whose wife died of "suicide " 15 years before grounds is with the working class folks that George does as well as her higher caste peers. This is an important step book in the Lumley\Helen relationship and that part of the book is done with extraordinary mastery as is the growing working relationship with Barbara Havers. All in all a very satisfying read.

Over-focus on the sex lives, and lack of them, among her characters turns George's novel into heavy soap opera. Everyone, including the detectives, is too close to hysteria or maudlin self-pity all the time.

A good story, but spoilt by sloppy editing or proof reading, spelling mistakes on every other page almost, and these all simple words. An instance is 'domes' instead of 'clothes' - where I would think that the 'cl' has been read as a 'd' and the 'th' as an 'm'. The word 'heir' used instead of 'here', and so on. Maybe the original was damaged or smudged, but proper editing should have found these careless mistakes. Of course it may be something to do with the kindle publishing format, but if so, it would be found in other kindle books. My other grouse is more general, and to do with the writing. The time frame is a little uncertain, but would appear to be late eighties. By which time the Met had a well established Murder Squad, and it is unlikely that investigations would be made by just a DI and a sergeant, especially if working in the counties. I believe there would have been a team under a DCI, a couple of DI's possibly, two or three sergeants and a number of DC's with 'aides' drafted in from Uniform Branch if required. And for a DI, whatever his background, to be driving his own Bentley would be somewhat surprising - a pool car would be more likely.

Elisabeth George has a compelling way of writing that sucks you into the story so it's never a chore to read, but I didn't find it a satisfying end. I felt like there were many times when she built up a character and their personal history only to have them do something totally contrary to their personality and she wouldn't really explain it. I realise I've said that badly but I'm trying not to give away spoilers!

This is a great whodunnit in every sense: great characters, fast moving plot, brilliant setting and surprising ending. The only thing I would have liked was a list of the cast, as especially in the beginning I got a little confused as to who was who. Havers and Lynley make an unusual but brilliant team. An excellent read.

Having seen the Inspector Lynley stories on T.V, started to read the books. The storyline is good, characters and plotting also good. But, from a personal viewpoint find the prose overblown, as though the Author has a Thesaurus on her desk, and ordinary words get substituted for, perhaps more literary words, in some cases even archaic, as though she is ramming her education and erudition down my throat. Also lots of typos in the manuscripts which can be extremely annoying and distracting from the narrative.

It's my first book by this author, I read it because of the tv series. It was excellent and I just had to get to the truth,. Absolutely brilliant.